Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
It’s always fun when picture books play on words to get your attention. When my son (age 5) first started reading Pig and Small by Alex Latimer (Peachtree, August 2014), he commented, “The author should have called this book Big and Small because Pig is big and the bug is small! They are opposites.” He
Sometimes a clever and intriguing storyline makes a novel great. Sometimes, it is the interaction of a number of interesting characters. And other times, a novel is great because of the carefully developed setting that gives life to the situations and characters. In One Came Home (January 2013, Knopf Books for Young Readers), Amy Timberlake
What is better than a fun story about hundreds of little animals (like 999 Tadpoles)? What is better than a Where’s Waldo search? Try 100 Hungry Monkeys by Masayuki Sebe (Kids Can Press, 2014)! In this story, 100 hungry monkeys need something to eat, so they start looking for it and they end up having an adventure.
The Great Gilly Hopkins is not an easy book to read. Gilly is a child in a difficult situation. She is a child without a family, moved through the foster care system. She does not make it easy for her foster parents, because she believes that her mother loves her and needs her. She dreams
One delightful aspect of children’s picture books is that the impossibilities become possible. In If You Happen to Have a Dinosaur by Linda Bailey and illustrated by Colin Jack (Tundra Books, May 2014), the illustrator and author create a number of what-ifs out of the impossibility of actually having a dinosaur as a pet. It is
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit (published 1907) is a tale of modern magical enchantments. Three children, Gerald (Jerry), Jimmy, and Kathleen (Cathy), stumble upon a large estate that reminds them of a castle; in their play-acting, they stumble upon a sleeping girl they decide must be a princess. Despite her later declaration that she
The Simples Love a Picnic by J.C. Phillips (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2014) is so much fun! It is a story of a family going on a picnic in the park. But of course, parks have lots of undesirables…squirrels, ants, and too many people playing sports. This was a picnic trip that I could relate to:
50 Body Questions by Tanya Lloyd Kyi and illustrated by Ross Kinniard (Annick Press, February 2014) is a visually appealing book about the human body. As the title indicates, 50 questions take readers on a journey through the body, covering concepts about the digestive system, blood, muscles and bones, germs, the brain, and the nervous
A 1959 Newbery Honor book, Along Came a Dog by Meindert DeJong is a simple story of an unlikely friendship. Most of the action is between animals; therefore, there is little dialog. But despite the slower pace of the story, the author creates a moving tale of friendship and support that I really enjoyed reading.
I love the complexities of the English language! I find it lots of fun to play with words and see where the meanings take me. I love the sounds of poetry and the silliness that comes when words are placed in different orders in sentences. A few books from VanitaBooks provide a humorous look at idioms,
Beautiful illustrations tell the story of a creative flying mouse in Lindbergh: The Tale of a Flying Mouse by Torbin Kuhlmann (North South books, 2013). When new mouse traps and an abundance of cats overrun the city where a clever (unnamed) mouse is living, he decides he must go to America for freedom. His creativity
Before the World Was Ready: Stories of Daring Genius in Science by Claire Eamer; art by Sa Boothroyd (Annick Press, 2013) tells the stories of a few scientists who had ideas that were not accepted. These scientists were correct, but the world did not accept their writing or the scientists lived before technology had been invented that
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